The Checkbook vs SpendCircle
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
The Checkbook
Manage your finances on the go with this transaction tracker. Easily record income and expenses, schedule upcoming bills, and reconcile with your bank statements for accurate balance tracking. Offers multiple accounts, customizable themes, and secure access.
- Real-time transaction tracking
- Upcoming bill and deposit scheduling
- Bank account reconciliation
- Multiple account management
- Customizable color themes
- Transaction search and filtering
- Recurring transaction setup
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Finance At Your Fingertips Track your financial transactions on-the-go in real time. Enter upcoming bill payments and deposits to see how your account balance will change. Reconcile each transaction against your bank account to balance your checkbook and ensure accuracy to the penny. * No ads. * Quick entry screen for new transactions to keep up with spending while you're on the move. * Create a new transaction in seconds with type ahead feature for common transactions. * Manage transactions in multiple accounts. * Customize color theme for each account. * Search for transactions. * Toggle visibility of reconciled transactions to see what hasn't cleared your bank account yet. * Set up recurring transactions. * Transfer money between accounts. * Basic reporting to view spending or income by category and daily spending. * Export transactions to CSV file. * Enable Face ID / Touch ID to secure access to your financial data. * Turn on iCloud Drive data storage to sync transactions across multiple devices. * Share every new transaction with a joint account owner via email or Shared Storage (subscription required) to keep app in sync for different users. Privacy Note: The developer does not collect any data from this app for the default local device or iCloud storage options. The developer only securely stores data for the Shared Storage option (subscription required) for the purpose of sharing and syncing the data with your invited users. See Privacy Policy for more details.
SpendCircle
This app helps families track household expenses together, providing a shared view of spending to improve financial habits. Users can define custom categories, add notes, and gain insights into where money is going. The goal is to reduce wasteful spending and prioritize important purchases.
- Shared family spending view
- Expense tracking in real-time
- Customizable spending categories
- Detailed expense notes
- Accountability for family members
- Spending habit building
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Bewildered by your monthly household spending? With multiple credit card closing cycles and spending family members, it's impossible to keep track. And you can't manage what you can't track! With SpendCircle, your entire family shares a common view of spending. Track expenses as they happen, keep each other accountable and build good spending habits. Define your own spending categories, make detailed notes, and get a deep understanding of your family spending. Motivate your family to reduce wasteful spending and make room for the things that matter!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: SpendCircle at Free against The Checkbook's $4.99. SpendCircle also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 76%) and rating (5.0 vs 4.8). The Checkbook's advantage is ratings volume (970 vs 2) and chart position (#55 vs unranked). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
SpendCircle is free to download; The Checkbook costs $4.99 up front. The Checkbook sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and SpendCircle sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $1.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
SpendCircle holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: The Checkbook has 970 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 76% of The Checkbook's written reviews are positive against 100% of SpendCircle's.
The Checkbook ships an update fortnightly, SpendCircle every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | The Checkbook | SpendCircle |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.8 (970 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 76.1% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 970 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Best chart rank | #55 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 61 MB | 33 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Four One Four 213, LLC | Claredat LLC |
Customer experience
The Checkbook
SpendCircle
Bugs and requests
The Checkbook
Reported bugs
3 issues- Data loss and sync issues
- Incorrect transaction display
- Recurring transactions not working as expected
Requested features
6 requests- 📊 Spending reports and analytics
- 🔁 More recurring transaction options
- 🖨️ Check printing capability
- 🔀 Ability to split transactions
- 🔄 Easier transaction editing/deletion
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- 🔒 Backup and restore options
SpendCircle
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
The Checkbook
- Shared Storage - Monthly$1.991 Month
- Shared Storage - Annual7 Days trial$19.991 Year
SpendCircle
- 1-Month Free | Annual Plan1 Month trial$1.991 Year









